Negative bicycle attitudes

It is sad to read Joseph Busuttil's letter (Taken For A Ride... And Nearly Arrested, November 12) about being asked by the police to remove his innocuously parked bicycle. Such experiences are not uncommon because, in addition to the prevailing negative attitude, cyclists are regularly faced with the problem of finding somewhere suitable (and safe) to leave a bicycle. On a similar occasion a police officer decided that I should not leave my bicycle among parked cars outside a government office and ordered me to park it around the corner. I refused and, realising he had no justification, he backed down.

Thankfully there are also rare positive experiences. The Phoenicia Hotel and the Casino Maltese treated me like royalty when I arrived by bicycle on a number of occasions. By contrast, I was treated like a leper at the Intercontinental Hotel in St Julians. The irony of this was that I had cycled there to attend Austin Gatt's Transport Reform Symposium. I was banished to the dark stygian depths of the underground garage where I feared my bicycle would get stolen.

On the whole, bicycles tend to be treated with disdain at many government departments where one is generally asked to put the bicycle somewhere out of sight as if it were something shameful. This is a pity because if cycling is to be encouraged it should start here and cyclists should be encouraged by being made to feel welcome by government establishments.

A case in point is Mater Dei Hospital which can be conveniently reached in minutes by bicycle from many surrounding localities. This provides an excellent opportunity for encouraging people to cycle in. Each time I used a bicycle to visit this hospital I was unceremoniously shooed away from the main entrance by security staff. I eventually found a deserted "bicycle park" misguidedly located at some distance from the main entrance. An out-of-way parking place does not in the least encourage people to use a bicycle because cyclists are reluctant to leave their precious bicycle unattended too far away; this also cancels out the immense attraction of quick door-to-door convenience of the bicycle.

Another important point is that without encouragement bicycle use will not increase. A few bicycles visibly parked near the hospital main entrance could serve as good publicity for bicycles which might prompt other people to have a try at riding in on a bicycle for visiting - thus decreasing congestion. But such is the archaic and negative attitude of our planners to bicycles that none would want to see bicycles parked near the entrance of our spanking new hospital.

It is sad that Malta stubbornly persists with its unhealthy, out-dated obsession with the car when the bicycle is fast becoming the favoured mode of clean, healthy urban transport in affluent countries such as Holland, Denmark and Germany. Every day millions of students cycle to school or university. Some EU countries even offer subsidies to those who opt to cycle to work.

Surely it is time our planners asked themselves why so many citizens of modern, sophisticated countries readily forgo the car and embrace the bicycle, whereas the opposite prevails in Malta. One reason must surely be the antagonistic attitude of motorists to cyclists on the road, which is based on prejudice against the bicycle. Sadly this negative attitude is here to stay. This wonderful machine, the bicycle, will remain the Cinderella of our roads - and the car will continue to reign, much to the detriment of our environment, our health - and our waistlines.